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Over the weekend the project’s founder Cody Wilson posted a YouTube clip of the group testing an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon Defense Distributed assembled with a 3D-printed lower receiver, the highly-regulated component that serves as the body of the gun onto which the barrel, stock, magazine and other elements are attached.

Here’s their video.

The result of Defense Distributed’s experiment: Their home-printed AR-15 piece cracked and fell apart after firing just six rounds.

But Wilson still considers their first test of a partially-downloadable weapon a successful learning experience. On the next print, for instance, Wilson says the group may reinforce the ”buffer ring”–the thin threaded ring at the back of the receiver that attaches to the gun’s stock–with thicker material or ribbing. “We’ll try to see if we can build it up and make it better. That’s a positive thing,” he said when I spoke with him the day after his shooting session. “We’re taking a page out of open-source [development]: Here’s all the information from what we did, so people can immediately benefit from what we’ve done and what we learned.”

A lower receiver has special significance to gun enthusiasts: It’s the central part of the weapon that’s regulated by gun control laws and trackable by serial number. Print your own lower-receiver at home, and in many states all the other parts can be obtained without background checks or even identification.

Defense Distributed isn’t the first to test an AR-15 with a 3D-printed lower receiver, or even the first to do so on video. Over the summer, an AR-15 enthusiast named Michael Guslick wrote a post to an AR-15 web forum detailing his own experiment in 3D-printable weaponry. In fact, Guslick says he fired over 200 rounds with his partly-3D-printed semi-automatic, many more than Defense Distributed managed.

But Defense Distributed has much greater ambitions. The group eventually intends to 3D-print a full gun from scratch, rather than a mere component. But building that so-called “wiki weapon,” which Wilson says likely won’t look anything like an AR-15, requires a federal firearms license. The group applied for that gun manufacturing permit six weeks ago from the bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, but has yet to hear back. In the meantime, following in Guslick’s footsteps and testing out the blueprint he posted to the 3D printing community site Thingiverse represents a kind of educational exercise, Wilson says. “We just wanted to play around with it a little and we thought we could contribute,” says Wilson. “Before we start rocking the boat, we wanted to do something a little less controversial.”

Regulatory issues, however, may be the least controversial element of a project that aims to let anyone create deadly weapons in their garage with the push of a button. When Defense Distributed first went public with its fundraising campaign on the crowd-funding website Indiegogo, the group was quickly banished for violating the site’s terms of service. After the group raised funds again through other channels and rented a 3D printer from Stratasys, the printer company learned of the group’s intentions and repossessed its machine.

But Defense Distributed’s libertarian ideals have attracted supporters, too, including one who offered access to the high-end Objet printer the group used to print its AR-15 piece. Within hours of posting its video to YouTube, other fans were posting positive comments. “Looking good…keep up the hard work!” wrote one.

“Keep up the R&D, boys,” added another. “This is the greatest thing since the Gutenberg press.”

Read about all the details of Defense Distributed’s AR-15 experiment on the group’s blog here.

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I believe this will be the next big thing for the Government to try and stop. With new inventions, come new regulations from our “friends” in the U.S, Govt.. I hope you can work out the bugs before you get stopped. The way things are going in the world today, get it done asap, before someone tries to stop you or take it from you. Do not trust anyone. Thank God for entrepreneurs like yourselves.

Keep in mind you actually have to buy/rent the 3-D printer in the first place, learn how to use it, and then acquire the necessary material for it. Hard? No. But a hell of a lot more work than it would be than to simply purchase a firearm illegal or not. Im not American so im not too familiar with the laws, but arent there even states in which you can simply walk into store, and purchase a firearm without any ID, licensing, or background checks? Surely that is much simpler and less hassle than printing ones own firearm. And on top of that, you are guaranteed a firearm that will not have a catastrophic failure after a few rounds. People who are clueless about firearms often have the misconception that firearms are complex machines that can only be manufactured with heavy industrial machinery. That statement couldnt be further from the truth. Given a decent amount of know how with working with metals, it isnt very hard to fabricate a firearm. Have you ever wondered how fellas in Pakistan are able to manufacture decent firearms in such “poor” condition? Hell, an idiot with half a brain could build something much more robust and deadly than a plastic 3-d firearm within his/her own garage that could be used thousands of times before failure.

No, its not true at all… you cant simply walk into a store and purchase a firearm without ID or background checks. Who told you that? You cannot buy a firearm without ID or a background check…and if its a handgun, you need a permit in most states. Anyone can buy a rifle without a pistol permit, but you still need to have an ID and go through a background check, unless you have the pistol permit (because you get the background check for the permit/license).

And the gunsmiths in Pakistan arent building complex firearms from scratch, they are building them with stock components…they are interchangeable, but its not like they are designing them and milling anything themselves. If any idiot with half a brain could do it as you say, then that would indeed be happening and we would be having a lot more assault rifle murders than we do.

By the way, Defense Distributed was implying at crowd sourcing their next gun. It’s when a large number of anonymous users apply slight changes to a basic design. Individually each user makes minor changes but over the course of time/users the end result is a more refined product that looks completely transitioned from it parent.

Sturdier plastic solutions are coming out along with the fact they can be made into any color just by adding dyes.

Which opens up a new dimension of stealth through design. Would the public react negatively to a person that looks to be brandishing neon pink or purple lavender semi-automatic weapons?

Most people that brandish guns to harm people dont “brandish” them for show and to say hey look at me, but they start shooting as soon as it is visible. So I would think its irrelevant what color the rifle is if someone starts shooting at people.

There is no difference in these guns and ones bought at a store… someone still needs the gumption and evil to go out and use this to murder innocent people.

“with a 3D-printed lower receiver, the highly-regulated component that serves as the body of the gun onto which the barrel, stock, magazine and other elements are attached.”

Thats actually not true, about the regulation part. Anyone can build an AR from parts without a single serial number, without any regulation. They even offer online 80% and 90% completed lower receivers, and they offer jig kits so you can finish it up at home without any need for a background check. All 100% BATF legal. You cannot sell these home made receivers, but you can certainly make them without any regulation. Also, when selling privately (not the home made), you dont need to fill out any paperwork. So how is it “highly regulated”?

“But Defense Distributed has much greater ambitions. The group eventually intends to 3D-print a full gun from scratch, rather than a mere component. ”

BS. Maybe they intend to 3d print a full TOY gun from scratch. It is impossible to fire a round with plastic, you need metal. The lower receiver right now can be used because the bullet is not being fired inside the receiver, it holds the trigger, magazine and upper receiver, but the upper receiver does the real work.

While a 3-D printed receiver is possible (eventually) for some types of firearms, they will never come to pass for most. The AR-15, a light-recoil, semi-auto look-a-like to the real assault rifles M16/M4, is a good candidate for development due to it’s light recoil and low-stress to the lower receiver. The reality is that for much less $, and much less hassle one can already purchase a 90% complete receiver without a background check, no serial number, no permit, etc. Then one only need to complete the machining, drilling/tapping required and purchase the remaining parts and assemble. There are skill sets needed, and experience with firearms a must, but, this is currently the best way to “Gun-grabber/confiscation’ proof a collection of firearms…..as long as you can hide the purchase without a paper/money-trail, and accumulate the ammo. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms by making your own without govt. knowledge or interference has been protected by the courts for over 2 centauries and reaffirmed several times over the last half of the 20th. I encourage all real patriots to acquire the skill sets to do so, and then ‘make themselves useful’ by adding to the stock of unregistered firearms in the hands of patriots who prefer peace, but are willing to defend the COTUS against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, WHEN the need shall arise.